In my last article, I talked about how the Klasky-Csupo Nicktoon Rocket Power seems to have forgotten about Breezy, especially considering that there was once a time when fans were expecting her and Ray to marry. But she's not the only "victim" of ignorance on that show. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to Trent.

Once again, we flash back to April 2002. More precisely, "Reggie/Regina" (first US tx: April 9, 2002, just two days before Breezy's debut). Reggie Rocket has just fallen off her surfboard. As it turns out, this was on purpose. Now why would a decent surfer like her beef on purpose, one might wonder? In this case, it's to get attention of a certain kid from New Zealand: Trent (voiced by Greg Coolidge).
This wasn't her first brush with a New Zealander: "Race Across New Zealand" (first US tx: February 16, 2002) had shown her racing against a local (and her own brother) in a series of sports competitions.
Anyways, by the end of this ep, some fans had become hopeful for romance between the two. Why wouldn't they? After all, Reggie's old enough, and they're both talented athletes.
Meanwhile tho, a good deal of fans were hoping for something to happen between Reggie and Twister:

"Those two click like a seatbelt!" -- Twister x Reggie
"Twister and Reggie are meant to be together" -- Twister x Reggie's signature
"Why, it would be a sad day for me, Twister, and the rest of the Reggie & Twister fans when Regina Rocket dated Trent." -- Totally Chelsi

Flash forward to October 2002. Reggie wants to be involved in some "Major Scrummage" (first US tx: October 14, 2002)... however, Trent seems to have only been teaching the boys how to play rugby, a sport popular in New Zealand (and other countries) but not in the US. Reggie's methods of dealing with this problem: destroying a trash-can with her fast-moving hockey slapshot ("If she ever gets a real boyfriend down the line, he better watch what he says" -- Master NC), and showing Trent that girls can too be extreme by beating him at his own game... literally.

When K-C revamped their RP website in January 2003, they included bios for not only the major characters, but those who only appeared a few times as well. Trent's bio reads thusly:

"Trent is a recent arrival to Ocean Shores. Hailing from New Zealand, he was quick to make an impression on his classmates, especially the ones of the female persuasion, who were all smitten with his Kiwi charm. But Trent is not just a pretty boy. He's an accomplished surfer and skater, and an excellent Rugby player. He has won the respect of Otto and the gang, especially Reggie... who might very well have a crush on him!"

However, by September 2003, some fans realized that something was up. Besides the aforementioned stories, Trent hadn't been in any others. Given the establishment of Trent as a crush for Reggie, some fans found it a bit odd. This is what Master NC has to say about the whole Trent/Reggie thing (these are from the same thread on the subject):

"Obviously so far Trent has been a relatively minor character. Reggie thinks nothing of him when he's not in an episode. So unless he becomes a regular (which he probably won't) I think Reggie's 'puppy love' for Trent will probably fade out."
"I'm staying neutral on the issue in general. Trent and Reggie seem to have a 'thing' for each other, but I don't think he's on there enough for any real romance to occur."

(Note the underlined part. I will explain in the addenda how this phenomenon is not at all unique. I'll call it the "out of sight, out of mind" phenomenon.)

Trent's fate seems to be intertwined with that of Breezy's:
* Both made their first appearances in April 2002 (in fact, within the same week)
* Both have been established as romantic interests for major characters (Trent/Reggie, Breezy/Ray)
* However, both have only had one ep after their introduction.

Their underuse bothered me a lot, so in December 2003, by which time I'd joined Nickdisk, I asked this question: "Which of the non-pairings (Ray/Breezy, Reg/Trent) surprised you more?" Master NC put up his thoughts thusly:

"While I'm a little disappointed that Trent hasn't been in more episodes, I think Breezy was perfect for the Rockets. Cooltoons' website even says she might become a 'permanent' addition. However, I guess they changed their minds before they wrote her in to the show too much."

The following month, I decided to get to the bottom of this issue: "Why do you think that KC seem to have suddenly abandoned the Ray/Breezy and Reg/Trent pairings? I mean, Trent was only in 2 stories, and how many stories has Breezy been in so far again?"

Once again, Master NC put up a reply:

"I think I can provide an easy explanation about Trent: Nick has lost interest in RP and hasn't ordered enough episodes for KC to include Trent more often."

With persistent rumors at the time saying that RP was no longer in production, it does sound logical... meanwhile, he also put up this trivia tidbit as well:

"Speaking of Trent, his physical character might have been in the cards for a while. I was watching 'Double-O Twistervision' (first US tx: April 7, 2001, a full year before Trent's debut - SpiderBraids), and at the end of the movie, a bunch of kids walk out, and the first one looks very much like Trent. I bet they copied his looks from that character or vice-versa."

More recently, this interesting conspiracy theory cropped up from (who else?) Master NC:
"Either they booted Greg Coolidge (who provided Trent's voice) because of his involvement in risque movies such as 'Sorority Boys' (which he wrote), or they didn't want to make the series too sappy with romance (although ATBG has Darren and Ginger together as an obvious couple). Note how many other shows have open and constant romantic relationships between young characters."

No matter what, it remains to be seen where K-C stands on the Trent/Reggie issue, or whether they even have anything in store for this would-be couple.

Addendum:
The fact that Reggie's crush on Trent is only brought up in the two stories he's in might be explained by something called the "out of sight, out of mind" phenomenon: basically, no matter how much two character have a crush on each other, if both characters aren't in the ep, nothing is mentioned of the crush. This is not unique to Rocket Power (although the fact we have two cases of it, Reggie/Trent and Ray/Breezy might be). Here are standout examples on other shows:

* Hey Arnold!, "Gerald vs. Jamie O" (first US tx: November 11, 2003, the same day some fans felt that Nick lied to them about new RP eps being aired). Plotline: Gerald has a crush on a girl about his older brother's (Jamie O) age.

Many HA! fans had been expecting this ep to shed some light on his crush with Phoebe, which had been majorly hinted on in the past 5 seasons of the show. Don Del Grande even wrote the summary for the ep like this in anticipation of such a storyline:

"Gerald gets a crush on a new girl (all together now: 'what about Phoebe?')"

When the ep actually aired in the US, Gerald/Phoebe shippers were in for some disappointment. The story wasn't about how this new crush might affect the existing one, but rather Gerald reflecting on how his older brother kept stealing things from him, including, as it appeared, his new crush Chloe. Del Grande stated it best:

"There was something missing in all of this 'Gerald in love with Chloe' talk...nobody mentioned Phoebe! Maybe they're 'just friends' after all?"

It's even more egregrious than the above, since both Gerald and Phoebe appear, and yet nothing was made of their crush. Rhonda was busy predicting that Arnold would be marrying Helga, but never predicted anything about Gerald or Phoebe.

* As Told By Ginger, "Ginger's Solo" (first US tx: June 30, 2002). Plotline: Having fallen in love with Sasha in the earlier ep "Summer of Camp Caprice" (first US tx: July 7, 2001), Ginger visits his school by becoming a triangle player in her school's band, who happens to be going there.

Del Grande says:

"At first, I thought this episode took take place soon after school started, since it wouldn't make much sense for Ginger suddenly to be interested in Sasha again, and she didn't look particularly interested in other episodes. However, I've been told that (a) Macie is in the band in 'Mommie Nearest' (first US tx: May 19, 2002), as Ginger says Macie had band practice, and (b) the sweatshirt Ginger is wearing is the one she got on her New York trip in 'The Nurses' Strike' (first US tx: February 14, 2002)."